Running into Love
by Cricky and Morgy 11 and 22
Summary: Sam joins Track and Field. What happens at their first meet? Read to find out!


"Come on Sam!" Quinn, Bryan, and Jake all begged.

"No! Why would I be in track? I can't run fast! I'd lose all my races!" Sam turned on her heels and glared. They had been bothering her to be in Track for almost two months and Track didn't start for another month.

Jake hadn't started asking until Sam had jokingly said she was faster than him. He's competiveness had come out and he had immediately started saying she should be in Track so he could see who had a faster time.

"You are too fast!" Bryan rolled his eyes. "I've seen you run!"

"You won't come in last, besides, Track isn't all running. There's throwing too. That's why it's Track and _Field_!" Quinn explained for the hundredth time.

"You thought you were pretty fast not long ago." Jake said matter-oh-factly.

"I was joking, Jake!" Sam, sighed. "I'm not fast Bryan. Who the heck joins Track to throw? Huh, Quinn? The runners look down on the throwers! Everybody knows that!"

"Jake, do you look down on me?" Quinn asked, his arms crossed.

"Quinn, that's not what I meant."

"No, I don't look down on you because you throw, because you also run." Jake said, not even looking at Quinn. "Please Sam, just sign up and if you don't like it you can quit."

"If I sign up will you all leave me alone!" Sam yelled.

"Yes!" They all yelled.

"Fine, I'll sign up for Track!" Sam stomped away.

"And _Field_!" Quinn yelled. Sam rolled her eyes as she went inside.

* * *

_First Track and Field Practice_

* * *

"Elys, I'm expecting a lot from you this year." Coach MeGre said, pulling the three Elys to the side.

"You always do, MeG-y." Quinn smiled.

"That Samantha, is she any good?" He asked, raising an inquirying eyebrow.

"She's fast...when she wants to be." Jake supplied.

"I personally think she'd make a good thrower..."Quinn let his sentence trail off.

"No, I think she'd be a good high-jumper..." Bryan added.

"Of course you guys think she'd be good at those events, they're you're events." Jake rolled his eyes.

"Alright guys, work hard." The coach walked away and told all the kids in the gym to start running.

Sam had seen the coach and the Elys looking at her, talking. She wondered what they had said. She started jogging up and down the gym like everyone said. "Hey Sammy, ready to start running?" Quinn jogged beside her.

"No..I don't want to run." Sam whined.

"Come on Brat. It's not bad." Jake came up behind her and started jogging with Quinn and Sam.

"So whatcha interested in doing?" Bryan jogged up to them.

"I don't know. What do you guys do?" Sam asked.

"I do Dicus, Javelin, 200x4 Meter relay, and 800 Meter dash." Quinn supplied, throwing his chest out, proudly.

"I'm in High Jump, Triple Jump, and 200x4 Meter relay, and Dicus." Bryan put in, leaping like a dork when he said he said jump.

"I run 400 Meter dash, 200 Meter dash, 200x4 Meter relay, and 3200 Meter. Sometimes 1600 Meter, maybe 400 Meter dash, and 800 Meter dash. I actually I do anything except Dicus, Javelin, High Jump and Triple Jump, that's Quinn and Bryan's events, but mostly the dashes and the 2 mile." Jake talked proudly. He knew he was good he tried not to boast, it' didn't work. "Except Hurtles, I always over jump and don't have enough time to pick up speed."

"Wow..." Sam whispered, amazed. "Um, what do you think I'd be good at?"

"I'd suggest you watch all the events you can at practice today then anything you're interested ask someone who does it to help." Jake offered.

"Alright, so just talk to you guys?" Sam did high skips with everyone else.

"Pretty much, yup." Bryan smiled.

* * *

Sam was doing what Jake said, she watched all the events carefully to see which she would like soo, she was watching Jake... He was so fast and athletic. Sam could tell when he was running that he was at home like when he was riding. He got an at glint in his eyes and a small smirk on his face when he would race someone. He would grit his teeth and just run head long, it was amazing to see.

Though she'd pretty much just watched Jake work, she did decide what she was interested in: Dicus, High Jump, 200 Meter dash, 100x4 Relay. There were 3 girls she didn't think would be bad to run the relay with.

* * *

_First meet._

* * *

"I think I'm going to puke." Sam said when Jake, Bryan, and Seth came over to see how she was feeling.

"You're fine Brat, I promise. You're just nervous." Jake said, calmly.

"Yeah Sammy, we all get that feeling before we do our event." Quinn nodded.

_"2nd call for the following field events: boys' Shotput, boys' Triple Jump, girls' High Jump, girls' Dicus, and girls' Javeline." _The annoucer announced over the intercome.

"See ya, Sammy, Jakers." Quinn and Bryan waved and jogged away to there events.

"Jake, I have Dicus and High Jump at the same time! What do I do?" Sam panicked.

"Calm down Brat, go sign in for both then go do Dicus. That shouldn't take as long. You only throw three times this meet. High Jump can take a really long time, especially if you're good." Jake put his hand on her shoulder and calmed her down by looking in her eyes with a calm, steady, gaze.

"Okay, but I'm not good at High Jump so that won't take long." Sam sighed and started walking toward the Dicus area.

"Rita," Jake called to a girl from there school. She turned and smiled.

"Yes Jake?" She jogged over.

"Can you sign Sam in at High Jump? She has to go throw Dicus." Jake yelled over his shoulder as he jogged after Sam.

"No problem," Rita smiled and started jogging to the High Jump spot. Jake got to where Sam was warming up and watched her.

"You sign in?" Jake checked.

"No Jake, I just decided to warm-up for an event I didn't sign in." Sam rolled her eyes, sarcastically. "Yes, I signed in."

"Do you know when you throw?" Jake ignored her sarcasm.

"I throw second." Sam nodded.

"Alright throwers..." The guy in charge of Dicus started. Sam got ready to throw.

"Alright Brat you got this." Jake smirked.

"Are you going to watch me the whole thing?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Well, you and are other throwers." Jake smirk grew.

"Samantha from Darton, you're up." The guy said.

"Good luck Brat," Jake gave her a thumbs-up. Sam smiled. She got low and looked at Jake one more time. He was watching her closely and smirking slightly. She threw 90'1".

"Nice Job Brat." Jake whistled. Sam smiled and walked out of the ring. The wrong direction.

"SCRATCH!" The guy yelled.

"Dang it!" Sam whisper-yelled.

"It's okay Brat." Jake smiled and gave her a high-five.

"No it's not!" She leaned her head on his chest, not even thinking about it.

"You still have two more throws and finals. You're fine." Jake chuckled. Sam finished throwing quickly with a throw of 95' 6" and 84'11". She didn't get to do finals.

"Come on you still have to High Jump," Jake tugged her along.

"Are you going to watch that too?"

"Yeah, as much as I can. You don't have the relay today do you?" Jake asked.

"No, Lisa is sick and no one else has practiced with us." Sam explained. Jake nodded.

Sam cleared 4'8" in her High Jump. "Brat, I have to go do my relay with Quinn, Ryan, and Bryan than all my events get going so you're on you're own."

"You do the relay with Ryan?" Sam was surprised.

"Yeah, he's pretty fast, as long as he doesn't start us. Bryan hands off to Ryan. Ryan hands off to Quinn. Quinn hands off to me." Jake shrugged. Sam followed Jake to were the relay teams were signing in.

"You have the baton?" Quinn asked Bryan when they showed up.

"No, where's Ryan?" Bryan looked around. "If he's late I will skin his hide."

"He's right there." Jake pointed across the field. Ryan was jogging over with a silver baton in his hands.

"_Last call for the 800 Meter Relay."_ The annoucer said.

"That's us. I'll go get us signed up." Bryan started to where people were signing up.

"Bryan!" Ryan threw the baton to him.

"Try to get the 2nd lane!" Quinn yelled. Bryan caught the baton and nodded.

"We got the 1st lane." Bryan jogged back.

"Okay, let's head to our places." Ryan jogged to his place. Jake started in the same direction. Sam followed him as Quinn and Bryan went to their places.

"Gonna watch?" Jake looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah," Sam nodded. Ryan got ready in his place and the man with the flags waited for everyone else to get ready. The man put up the flag and not long later a gun shot went off. Sam jumped a little and Jake chuckled at her.

Bryan was running hard quite a bit ahead of everyone else, but one guy was catching up to him.

"Come on Bryan!" Jake, Sam, Ryan, and a bunch of people from their school were cheering. Bryan was almost to Ryan when Ryan took off.

"Hand!" Bryan yelled to Ryan. Ryan's hand flew back and he got the baton. He falling behind the guy who was on the same team as the guy who almost caught Bryan.

"Go Ryan, come on you can catch him!" People yelled all around. Jake got on the track, gave Bryan a high-five and got ready for Quinn. Ryan handed off to Quinn without a hitch. Quinn ran as hard as he could to get ahead of the other team he was only a few steps behind.

"Run Quinn, get it to Jake! Go, go, go!" Sam cheered jumping up and down. Quinn got it to Jake and Jake was just...gone. He put his head down and it looked like his feet never touched the ground. Sam's mouth fell open, she was amazed by him. It was like watching the Phantom, but somehow...better. Jake got ahead of all the other teams and crossed the finish line far ahead of the other teams.

Sam jogged to the finish line with Bryan, and Quinn. Ryan was already there high-fiving Jake.

"Good job Jakers!" Quinn hugged his brother and Bryan high-fived him.

"Nice hand-off Quinn." Jake shook off Quinn and looked at Sam. "I didn't hear you cheering..."

"I, um, I," Sam swallowed the lump in her throat. "You didn't hear me?" She decided to try.

"No, I didn't," Jake crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I did," Sam lied, putting a hand on her hips.

"I didn't hear you either." Bryan said. Sam glared at him. "Wait, yeah, I did."

"Jake don't you have to go run you're 400 hundred or something?" Sam changed the subject.

"_2nd call 400 Meter Dash, 1st call 3200, 200 Meter Hurdles."_

_"_I guess I do," Jake looked at her. "I better hear you cheering this time."

"You will." Sam walked to the starting and finish line with Jake and watched him get ready. The hurdle people ran and then Jake got in his lane, of course in the 1st heat, which meant he'd be with the fastest people.

"Ready," A guy with a gun said. The runners went to the line. "Set," The got low and ready. "_*Bang!*" _Jake and six other runners took off. Jake wasn't going his fastest for the 1st 200 Meters then the last 200 he poured on the speed and he just ran.

"Go Jake, go!" Sam cheered as he ran by her. The closest guy to him was 10 yards behind him. He crossed the finish line. A tom-cat lying in the sun smirk on his face. Sam's heart skipped a beat.

He walked over to her. "I heard you this time." She smiled back at him.

"Good," She smiled.

_"2nd call: 3200 Meter, girls' Shotput, girls' Triple Jump...1st call: 1600, 800..."_

"You should probably try and get a little rest before you have to run." Sam suggested taking in Jake's sweat.

"I'll be fine," Jake smirked. He use the hem of his shirt to wipe away the sweat on his brow. His shirt lifted a little and Sam looked at his six pack. She shivered. "Are you cold? Did you bring sweats or something, like a blanket? Bring some next meet, it gets really cold at meets sometimes. Last year it was snowing at one of our meets."

"Um, yeah I'm a little cold," Sam nodded. Bryan, Quinn, and Ryan's eye met and the walked away quietly.

"I have a blanket in my duffel bag, you can use that." Jake offered.

"Sure, it's at camp right?" Sam started heading to camp.

"Yeah, I'm going to go get ready for the 3200." Jake started walking away.

"Okay, I'll be watching." Sam waved and headed to the school camp. She found Jake's duffel bag, unzipped it, and dug around for his blanket. She found it and pulled it out. It came out with a his wallet. His wallet fell open and she glanced at it. In it was a picture of Witch, a picture of his whole family, a picture or him and Sam when they were very little. Sam was about 5, Jake was about 7. "Oh, we were so cute..." She whispered.

"Watcha looking at Sam?" Melanie came over and plopped down by Sam.

"Um, nothing." Sam started to put the wallet away, but Melanie snatched it away. Melanie was Bryan's girlfriend, Sam really thought she was nice, but she was such a hopeless romantic.

"Oh, my gosh! You guys are just so-aww!" Melanie smiled brightly.

"Um, thanks," Sam smiled a little.

"You guys should go out, get married, have cute little kids, and I can be the godmother of one!" Melanie gushed. "I could be a bridesmaid too! Yup, you guys have to be a couple!"

"Um," Sam started, but then a gun went off and Jake and about 25 other kids were jogging around the track.

"Let's go watch." Melanie grabbed Sam's arm and pulled her toward the Sam. Sam wrapped Jake's blanket around her and followed Melanie. Sam and Melanie sat on the ground and watched Jake. "He's so good, it's not even funny." Melanie shook her head in admiration. "I wonder why he doesn't play other sports, I bet he'd be good. He's fast, tall, and muscular." Melanie shook her head in wonder.

"He doesn't play other sports because it would take away from his horse." Sam defended Jake. Sam for some reason didn't like Melanie talking about Jake so highly.

"Oh, I see," Melanie nodded. On about when Jake got threw his 1st mile Melanie spook up. "Do you like Jake?"

"Uh, well, I don't know." Sam blushed.

"Yup, you do," Melanie smiled and gave Sam a nudge with her elbow. "He likes you too." Melanie looked at Sam out of the corner of her eye.

"Did he say that?" Sam demanded.

"No, but I can tell he does." Melanie shrugged.

"How?"

"Just the way he acts around you. He's so quiet around anyone else, but with you he actually talks a lot." Melanie explained.

"Well, we've been friends forever." Sam rolled her eyes.

"I can find out if he likes you if you want.." Melanie offered.

Sam snorted. "Yeah, could luck with that."

"I will," Melanie nodded. "Come on Jake, only three more laps!" Melanie clapped and whistled. Sam clapped too.

"Fine,"

* * *

"_Final call 200 Meter Dash." _

"That's me," Sam stood up and handed Jake his blanket. "Thanks for letting me use you're blanket."

"No problem." Jake grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around him. Melanie also ran the 200 Meter Dash, but she was in one of the last heats.

"Jake, I need to talk to you." She said from Bryan's side. Sam watched from the track. She was in the 2nd heat.

"Hmm, sure," Jake didn't turn from Sam on the Track.

"You like Sam." Melanie said matter-of-factly. Jake's eyes widened and he turned toward Melanie and Bryan. Bryan was smiling at his girlfriend. Quinn, who was standing by Jake, smiled at his little brother.

"Um, I, um, what?" Jake blushed. A gun shot went off and the first heat started running.

"You like Sam." Melanie said, slowly.

"I, um,-"

"Yeah, he does." Quinn and Bryan both said. Jake glared at them then glanced at Sam getting low as the gun shot went off. Jake nodded without taking his eyes off Sam.

"She likes you too." Melanie whispered. Jake didn't say anything, he just watched Sam run. Melanie walked away and got ready for her heat. Bryan and Quinn looked at Jake.

"Are you going to ask her out?" Bryan asked.

"I don't know, maybe..." Jake started walking to were Sam was panting. "Good job Brat." Jake smiled brightly at her.

"Thanks, but I didn't hear you cheering." Sam said, pursing her lips.

"Sorry, I was talking to Melanie." Jake blushed and so did Sam.

"About what?" Sam asked, innocently. She knew of course.

"She wanted to know who I like." Jake decided to tell her the truth.

"Oh?" Sam bit her lip. "Who do you like?" Melanie had just finished her race and was walking toward them.

"I'll tell you later." Jake whispered to Sam as Melanie reached them.

"You're really cold Sam!" Melanie said, giving Sam a meaningful look. Sam was confused a moment. "Just trust me." Melanie whispered to Sam.

"Yeah, I am." Sam nodded.

"Here," Jake started to give Sam his blanket, but Melanie gave him a hard look.

"Share," She mouthed. Jake looked at Melanie again then at Sam. They both knew what she was doing and they were, surprisingly, okay with it.

Jake put out and arm awkwardly. "I'm cold too.." Sam looked at Jake and walked to his side. He put his arm around her. Melanie winked at both of them.

"We're both done with our events, aren't we?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Jake nodded.

"We should watch everyone else." Sam suggested.

"Yeah,"

"Let's go over here," Sam tugged Jake over to a group of there school friends.

"What do you know, they finally got together!" A guy said, giving Jake a pat on the back.

"We're just cold." They defended.

"Oh come on!" A bunch off people rolled there eyes. "Just ask her out Jake. Be a man." Jake and Sam shifted nervously under the blanket. They glanced at each other. Jake looked in her eyes.

"Brat, come on," Jake tugged her away from the group. There were cat calls. They were behind the bus before Jake stopped.

"It's later Jake, who do you like?" Sam asked looking up at him. Her green eyes were big and bright. Jake's mustang eyes got a nervous look in them, but he replaced it with a mischievous look in them.

He leaned down like he was going to whisper in her ear, but instead he turned his head and kissed her jaw. "I like you..." He pulled away. Sam's eyes widened. She looked at him then smiled. She wriggled her finger at him and he leaned in close.

"I like you too." Sam smiled then kissed him on the lips. He smiled into her lips.

"Aren't you glad you're in track, Brat?" He pulled her close to his side.

"Oh yeah," Sam smiled up at him. They walked back to the group of people.

"So?" Melanie smiled, knowingly. Jake kissed Sam on the top of the head. Everyone cheered as Sam giggled into Jake's rumbling chest.

**Okay, I'm in Track and Field. I do Dicus, Shotput, 200 Meter Dash, and the 4x100 Relay in Junior High. So times and throws might not be right. Sorry if there wrong. Stuff like this happens all the time at meets. I've seen it happen 5 times, so it's not unlikely.**

**Review.**


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